Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Creamy Goodness

When I read Tami Parr's very creative comic book-style recipe for yogurt cheese, I knew I would be making it in the near future. So Sunday I cut up some cheesecloth that was sitting in a drawer, dumped in a pint of whole milk yogurt, tied it up and hung it over the sink to drain for three hours.

Her recipe says that after hanging for about an hour it'll have the consistency of a Greek-style thick yogurt, and after three hours it'll be about as thick as cream cheese. And since I needed a little spread to take to dinner that night but not a lot of time to spend making something, this was just the ticket.

Seriously, this took maybe fifteen minutes to do and I was able to get all my other chores done while it drained. Then, when the three hours was up, all I did was pulverize some herbs and salt in the mortar and pestle (the salt crystals help to grind the herbs, a technique I heard from John Gorham at Toro Bravo) and mix them into the cheese.

Depending on the tartness of the yogurt you use it may have a tang to it, but let it sit for an hour after you mix in the herbs and it'll be great spread on crackers. Plus it's cool to tell people you made the cheese!

Okay, I gave it a try with Nancy's and it was a success. Tangy, but not overwhelmingly so. I used thyme, chives and tarragon, and spread it on garlic rubbed grilled baguette slices and topped it all with caramelized shallots. Fantastic!